Distance education (DE) is one of the most important ways in which future social workers can complete their MSW degree. With a reach to multiple populations, DE is especially suited to the field of social work, allowing rural, working, and financially-strained individuals to complete degrees and provide important services to underserved communities. In this comprehensive and well-organized guide to understanding and implementing distance education components into social work, pioneering professors explain how to administer DE components, discuss the adjustments and rewards of the DE teaching experience, evaluate the benefits for both students and teachers, and address evolving issues in the field. In addition, readers will be introduced to the latest audio-visual, computer -mediated, and computer-assisted modalities now in use as applied to distance education. From audio and visual teleconferencing to e-mail, networks, and web based courses, we are exposed to the current and future trends and possibilities in DE programs.

This book was written to help social work educators make pedagogically sound, rational, practical, and ethical decisions about integrating technology into their social work programs and across the curriculum. It covers a range of essential topics, from understanding digital literacy skills to ethical implications for technology in social work practice; from technology in the traditional classroom to fully online teaching environments. Case studies, real-world examples, and technology tips are part of each chapter, and checklists show how technology is integrated with the Council on Social Work Education's EPAS competencies, the NASW's Code of Ethics, and other social work practice standards and guidelines. Appendices provide a wealth of practical materials.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: China, India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea. It describes how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of the national higher education systems in these countries. It also explores the similarities and differences between how their open and distance higher education systems are managed and structured. This book is the second in a series, following Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas (Springer 2018). Both books compare and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems. In a digital era characterized by the growing use of online, open and distance education, this book will prove particularly valuable for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about establishing or expanding open and distance education services. In addition, it offers a valuable reference guide for researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to open and distance education. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

The face of education is constantly being transformed due to rapid changes in technology. It is imperative that leadership trends and techniques be evaluated in the educational field, particularly in reference to alternative learning programs. Administrative Leadership in Open and Distance Learning Programs is a pivotal scholarly resource that discusses emerging issues surrounding the administration of non-traditional education practices. Highlighting relevant topics that include policy development, quality assurance, accreditation, and assessment systems, this publication is an ideal reference source for educators, academicians, graduate students, and researchers that are interested in the progression of open and distance education.

Supervision is currently a "hot topic" in social work. The editors of this volume, both social work educators and researchers, believe that good supervision is fundamental to the development and maintenance of effective practice in social work. Supervision is seen as a key vehicle for continuing development of professional skills, the safeguarding of competent and ethical practice and oversight of the wellbeing of the practitioner. As a consequence the demand for trained and competent supervisors has increased and a perceived gap in availability can create a call for innovation and development in supervision. This book offers a collection of chapters which contribute new insights to the field. Authors from Australia and New Zealand, where supervision inquiry is strong, offer research-informed ideas and critical commentary with a dual focus on supervision of practitioners and students. Topics include external and interprofessional supervision, retention of practitioners, practitioner resilience and innovation in student supervision. This book will be of interest to supervisors of both practitioners and students and highly relevant to social work academics. This book was originally published as a special issue of Australian Social Work.

Excellent social work education and training is vital for ensuring best practice, and it is important to understand the key approaches and methods in order to provide the best teaching and ensure effective learning. This volume provides an overview of social work education, including the background and current context. It covers the key debates surrounding social work education, such as the evaluation of social work education, the use of IT, research-mindedness, and the effectiveness of interdisciplinary education. The book also offers guidance on effective teaching and learning approaches tailored to the needs of social work educators, covering teaching within a higher education institution, on student practice placements, and in post-qualifying settings. This will be an indispensable text for educators and trainers in the field of social work.

This handbook provides an authoritative account of social work field education in the global south. It presents an overview of various aspects of theory and practice modules in the social work curriculum and advances in research in social work field education in the developing world through in-depth analyses and global case studies. Key features: • Discusses critical issues and new directions in the theory and practice of social work field education, challenges in field work education, decolonising field work training, developing competent social work graduates, aligning fieldwork with cultural practices in indigenous communities, the idea of clinical social work, and a comparative analysis of social work field supervision. • Integrates theory and practice of social work field education for students and teachers from diverse geographical and cultural contexts across the global south, including countries from South Asia and Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China, Georgia, Philippine, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, Eswatini, Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Botswana, Chile, and Barbados. • Brings together international comparative perspectives on field work education in social work from leading experts, social work educators, and social work professionals. This handbook will be an essential resource for scholars and researchers of social work, development studies, social anthropology, sociology, education, South Asian studies, and Global South studies. It will also be useful to educators and practitioners of social work in global institutions of higher studies as well as civil society organisations.

Over the past few years, numerous highly ranked, Tier 1 universities across the United States have embraced the development of advanced online degrees, a niche of secondary education long held by a small group of private, for-profit universities. Rapid advances in online learning technology, increasingly sophisticated, and easy to use ‘learning management systems’ and ‘anytime, anywhere access’ has dramatically increase the demand of individuals, mostly full time employed, working professionals. This volume addresses the dramatic changes that are occurring in social work pedagogy as more schools develop online programs. The University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work launched their ‘Virtual Academic Center’ with a cohort of 80 online students. The program has now reached a ‘steady state’ of 2,200 ‘virtual’ students now representing two thirds of their MSW student population. Additionally, the school launched a doctorate of social work degree with a focus on leading and managing innovation, leading public discourse and management of large complex systems. This book essentially tells the ‘USC story’ with the challenges faced in embracing this new technology, teaching social work courses in an online environment, as well as pedagogical enhancements made by faculty in converting traditional campus based courses to the virtual environment.

Open and distance learning has the potential to strengthen and expand the teaching profession of the 21st century and to help achieve the target of education for all by 2015. This text examines the case for using open distance learning and ICT to train our educators.